Thanks for downloading this podcast from always possible. If you are not familiar with always possible’s work, we are a progressive consultancy, helping businesses, cultural organisations, education providers and public services tackle strategic and operational challenges - enabling clearer decision-making, more joined-up thinking and practical plans for the future. Our member network also helps entrepreneurs, community leaders and freelancers get access to affordable personal development and mentoring. Book your free consultation at www.alwayspossible.co.uk —- These weekly podcast interviews are an informal glimpse into the life and decision-making processes of someone who is changing the world. From the arts to academia, corporate technology to community wellbeing, radical business to local politics, we are continually exploring the motivations and behaviours of people who are following their instinct to improve a system. In this chat, always possible chief exec Richard Freeman, talks to Dave Shelton about the process of writing and illustrating books for children and what decisions and risks an author needs to make in order to create something for such a critical audience. Richard and Dave discuss where his ideas come from, and his journey from maths whizz with some basic drawing skills to an award-winning illustrator and prose writer, acclaimed for the inventiveness, wit and nostalgic melancholy that thread through his novels. They talk about what sort of living a writer might make in 2017 as well as whether it gets easier or quicker as confidence grows or actually higher expectations and pressure hamper the creative process. Dave Shelton is a writer and illustrator. He is the creator of the comic strip Good Dog, Bad Dog, published in The DFC, The Guardian and The Phoenix, as well as published as a book. His debut children’s novel, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat, won the 2013 Branford Boase Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie medal and the Costa prize. It was also adapted for the stage, both in the UK and Germany. Dave’s next book was 2014’s Thirteen Chairs, a collection of linked ghost stories and coming in April 2018 is the The Book Case – an Emily Lime Mystery. --- Useful links: http://www.daveshelton.com/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dave-Shelton/e/B0034OXG96 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thornhill-Pam-Smy/dp/1910200611 --- If you enjoyed the conversation it would mean the world to us if you’d leave a review on iTunes. You will find more ideas and discussion about critical decision-making on topics as wide-ranging as big data, music, pre-school education, virtual reality and international aid at www.alwayspossible.co.uk/podcasts
